Alrighty, time to get back into the swing of things! Today's Pokemon, as chosen by the community, is Roserade, an extremely viable special attacker with a couple of tricks up her sleeve. Of course, don't forget to vote on this week's poll to decide what Pokemon is featured next week (I swear!) on Pixelmon of the Week!______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Roserade is far from being the most competitively viable special attacker, but falls into a unique niche of it's own thanks to it's Grass / Poison typing and access to Toxic Spikes. Roserade's high special attack gives it offensive capabilities, while it's Sp.Def is high enough to withstand a couple special attacks. With that being said, let's move!

Roserade is an offensive special attacker that is extremely close to being a sweeper, bar one move - Toxic Spikes. Roserade works extremely well as a hazard user, which creates an additional use for the already powerful Pokemon. Coupled with some strong STAB moves for some coverage, Roserade can be a threat on the battlefield.

As a hazard user, Roserade should be brought in near the start of the battle (lead is possible, but risky) and set up Toxic Spikes / Spikes quickly. From there, Roserade is a simple special attacker that has reliable recovery through Black Sludge.

On the other hand, move passive moves such as Synthesis and Sleep Powder can turn Roserade into a specially defensive power that has relatively strong offensive capabilities. However, Roserade is still incredibly feeble on the physical side, and won't be able to take many hits - espeically with a weakness to Earthquake.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This set is the core set behide Roserade and makes use of Roserade's speed, special attack, and special defense capabilities to control the battlefield from the start. Toxic Spikes is generally prefered over Spikes, but note that this means the majority of your opponent's Pokemon thus cannot be burned, paralyzed, etc. - plan your play style accordingly. Sludge Bomb and a special Grass move (both Leaf Storm and Giga Drain are good options) should be a staple on any Roserade set. Lastly, HP Fire is a strong coverage move to deal with Bug, Ice, and particularly Steel types that would otherwise cause issues.

Alternatively, Roserade can run Sleep Powder (typically over HP Fire) to allow Toxic Spikes to get fully set up, but note the low accuracy of the move. Life Orb is also a good item choice, however most teams have another Pokemon that could use it more and Roserade make excellent use of Black Sludge.

This set is quite simple for and allows Roserade to take a couple hits on the special side, heal off any damage, and dish some out in return. With four reliable healing methods (Black Sludge, Natural Cure, Synthesis, and Giga Drain), Roserade should have no trouble outlasting any special attack Pokemon that doesn't have a type advantage. At the same time, this set is a lot more situational than the hazard set above, which is much more common. Using this set is very similar to the explanation above, and while this set is more defensive Roserade is still a bit of a glass cannon, especially on the phsical side.

User mini profile

- 31 May 2017 12:24#198509
So a lot of people on the server I play would label me a bad battler... and I want to tell you why.I use roserade fully offensive with a modest nature. If you can set up sticky webs before hand (galvantula is perfect) then base 90 speed means at +1 (technically against -1) it outspeeds pretty much everything it needs to.

It is countered by flying types especially dragonite but if you have rocks up, then dazzling meme is a guarenteed OHKO (with life orb) and that is one of the biggest threats on my server. The other major counter is salamence since it mostly runs choice scarf with moxie on my server.. so thats awkward. If its not then a dazzling meme will kill too.

Roserade gets wide coverage even if you never use some of the moves like extrasensory or weather ball and poison isn't too resisted in the current meta especially since a lot of the competitive battlers seem to see roserade as more of a grass type than a poison type so they tend to switch pokemon like charizard, dragonite or venusaur (if people actually used that more) to counter giga drain which makes sludge bomb a really powerful stab move.